Minimally invasive surgical devices, such as endoscopes, laparoscopes, and retrieval devices can provide access to remote surgical sites within a human body through body openings, cavities, or tracts. Such surgical devices may include elongate portions that are maneuverable in the openings and that allow an operator to simultaneously view and operate at the remote site. In the field of urology, medical retrieval devices, such as collapsible baskets, graspers and the like, are used to retrieve various foreign or biological materials, such as kidney stones, urinary calculi, and choleliths, from within a body. In certain urological procedures, the retrieval device is used to immobilize kidney stones relative to a laser fiber. Lithotripsy then fragments the stones for retrieval and removal by the retrieval device.
Medical retrieval devices typically include a sheath and an object-engaging unit, such as a basket, that is moveable relative to the sheath from a collapsed state within the sheath to another state in which the unit extends past the distal end of the sheath. The sheath typically extends from a handle, located at the proximal end of the sheath to the object-engaging unit which is located at the distal end of the sheath. As such, the term “proximal end” refers to the end away from the patient and the term “distal end” refers to the end near the patient and that goes into the patient. The handle often includes a mechanism for actuating the object-engaging unit in order to move the object-engaging unit between the collapsed and extended, expanded states.
During a urological procedure, a physician moves the distal end of the medical retrieval device in relation to the distal end of an insertion device, e.g., a ureteroscope. This may be accomplished by gripping the sheath just proximal to the point where the retriever sheath is introduced into a channel within the ureteroscope. As the physician operates the ureteroscope and positions the sheath of the retrieval device, an assistant is required to actuate the handle at the physician's direction to retrieve foreign material.
In procedures that utilize a laser fiber and a retrieval device, the physician must carefully hold and reposition the two items relative to each other and to the ureteroscope. Currently, an operator must manipulate and actuate each device independently or with the assistance of another operator. Such procedures can become time consuming and cumbersome.
In light of the foregoing, there is a need for an improved handle for a medical retrieval device that allows for the device to be introduced, positioned, and actuated by a single hand of an operator.